Pink or blue? Old wives' tails revisited

When I was pregnant with Piper, we didn't know what she was until she arrived so I blogged about many of the old wive's tails I had been told throughout my pregnancy. As it turns out, many were true and we ended up with a bouncing baby girl with lots of hair.

This time around has been no different. Everyone asks what we're having, and since we don't know, they have an opinion. While with Piper the vast majority of people thought it was a girl (myself not included), this time around, most people are seeing blue in our not too distant future. So let's recap ...

• Fetal heartbeat: Fast heartbeat = girl; slower heartbeat = boy. What's fast and what's slow? I'm honestly not entirely sure, but I will say that this time around is very similar to last time. While Piper tended to be right around 155, this one was 155 multiple appointments in a row, with the lowest I've seen being 145, and our last appointment was 150. I guess that's fast? Not quite sure, but I will say that this is one ACTIVE baby in my belly and the little girl or boy is working up a faster heartbeat with all of the acrobatics it's doing.
• Linea negra - theory #1: Line on your belly? High estrogen, which means a girl. No line, better paint the nursery blue. No line this time, which would mean a boy.
• Linea negra - theory #2: If the line only goes from your pubic bone to your belly button, then it's a girl; if it goes up past your belly button up to your sternum, then it's a boy. Since I don't have a line, I guess I automatically default to theory #1, but then again, the two linea negra predictions seem totally oppposite to me so your guess is as good as mine ... Last time I had a line up to my belly button, so this time is different. Pointing at blue again?
• How you're carrying the baby - theory #1: This is kind of like the heartbeat where what denotes "fast", but apparently if you're carrying evenly across your front, onto your sides, it's a girl. Carrying what looks like a basketball on your front, with it ALL out front, it's a boy. I look entirely different this time around than with Piper. Even though I've gained about the same amount of weight this pregnancy, I can say that I carried Piper EVERYWHERE on my body. My hips, butt, face, arms. You name it, she was crammed in there somewhere. This time around, of course everything is a little bigger, but it's totally different and I'm mostly belly. Now I did start out weighing less in general with this pregnancy ... but I guess I'd put us into the boy category again, and that's what everyone tells me when they see me.
• How you're carrying the baby - theory #2: There's also the high (girl) versus low (boy)conundrum, which I didn't cover with Piper, but again is totally subjective and I would think would have a lot to do with whether or not someone is long waisted or short waisted. I will say that I carried Piper way higher than I'm carrying this one so I guess that puts us into the boy category.
• Baby's level of activity: Got a quiet baby in there? Girl. Growing a kick boxer? Boy. Piper was a super active baby and hasn't slowed down since she entered the real world. This one is also a crazy fool, but I'm going to put that on genetics and not gender. Either way, my guess is this child will be a bit wild and super active, just like his/her older sister.
• Penny and the wall: There's something about a penny and the wall and whether it sticks. We ended up doing this with Piper at my mother in law's insistence and I don't remember whether it stuck or not, but I know the verdict was boy and obviously that wasn't the case. She hasn't asked me to do it this time, and frankly I would refuse, having just had the walls painted while we were on vacation in January. No since in ruining a paint job over nothing!
• You just are ...: And then there's my final favorite - "I can just tell." I don't think a single person has told me this time around they think it's a girl.
• The ultrasound technician calls it a "he": Lastly, at our 20 week ultrasound, the technician knew we didn't want to find out the sex, but after 45 minutes of looking at the baby, she called it a he. When I asked her whether she just gave the sex away, she quickly said she calls them all "hes" when they don't know ... was she just covering? I have heard of this happening before, but I personally think she slipped.

And just to be clear, I would love to know what we're having this time around, but am giving my husband the opportunity to have one last surprise because he absolutely loves that we don't know. But part of my wanting to know has to do with the name ... we have a girl's name that we love. First, middle, everything. Boy name? Not even close. We have nothing. We don't like the name that Piper would have been so thank God she was a girl, but we're so far away from a boy's name this time that if it is a girl, I would love to just throw the whole name discussion in the trash and never look back. And if it is a boy, then we better get cracking and fall in love with something soon or else Piper's going to name the boy Peewee like she says she wants and we won't have any other good options so the poor kid will be screwed with a lifetime of heckling.